As for the Democrats, well, they come off looking even worse. They are certainly as venal and power-hungry as the Republicans; they've proven that over and over. But what makes them even worse is that they parade around waving their humanitarian banners as thought they really give a shit about the have-nots, and then, in a remarkable collapse of backbone, sell them down the river every time a reactionary yells "liberty!". One really has a difficult time telling them apart anymore, as Gore Vidal repeatedly warned:
"...the United States has only one party—-the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican."
To their credit, Dems find the totalitarianism of Republicans, with their demands for compliance with the party line, anathema. But they are far too cowardly for my taste, with no real statecraft to allow them to distinguish between when compromise is needed and when it needs to be left in the dirt. It's as though, despite their humane platform, the Democratic party is beset by an alien hand, one that keeps hitting them over the head with dinner plates:
This is a richer way of reposing the question: What's with the Dems? Are they weak, or do they suck?" To which my answer has been: Yes! They're weak and they suck! It's a two-fer!
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Heh! It is indeed
a two-fer. The question is still, so where do we go from here?
I'll raise you
to a three-fer. bi-partisan institutional corruption.
par4
oh yeah
Dugg
par4
The Lifeboat Party
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
"Back in 1932, the future Illinois Sen. Paul Douglas advised progressives not to expect too much from the Democratic Party. It was, he wrote, 'maintained by the business interests' as a kind of 'lifeboat.' Whenever the GOP ship sprung a leak—whenever Republicans were no longer willing or able to do business’s bidding—the interests simply piled into the other party and made their escape."
It's my thesis that the current Democratic Party has been infiltrated and co-opted and is being run by Republicans, who get the two-fer of destroying the remains of the New Deal andthe Democratic Party.
This is my thesis about the Democratic Party...
which, according to that thesis, is currently being run by its DINO
faction.
Link
Never vote for people who hate you.
ERA Now!
The Widdershins
I would say not DINO....
... but "the Finance Wing."
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
DINO is a huge misunderstanding
Everyone is tied to the idea that the Democratic Party is the de facto FDR/LBJ party. Dems in the late 1800s were racists and conservative. They changed with FDR and again during the dixiecrat seccession. There is reason to believe that the New Democratic Party is a corporatist conservative party, quite different from what it was 10 years ago.
Given the change in Party priorities, using DINO
ignores the real changes that have taken hold. This aint my parents' Dem Party. Its rotten from the top down. Its not individual actors. The sooner this is ackknowledged, the sooner we can actually begin to move forward. Weiner was a fucking WATB
when it came time to walk the walk. Meeks is selling out. That's not a symptom of a DINO
problem.
Only tyrants rig elections.
+1000
[applause, tossed roses, etc]
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi